Spec ops chief warns of al-Qaida 2.0

Associated Press ^ | Thursday, July 28, 2011 2:23 AM EDT | KIMBERLY DOZIER AP Intelligence Writer

[Hunton Peck]

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The top commander of U.S. special operations forces said Wednesday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida is bloodied and "nearing its end," but he warned the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.

Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson described the killing of bin Laden by a special operations raid on May 2 as a near-killing blow for what he called "al-Qaida 1.0," as created by bin Laden and led from his hideout in Pakistan.

Olson said the group had already lost steam because of the revolts of the Arab Spring, which proved the Muslim world did not need al-Qaida to bring down governments, from Tunisia to Egypt.

"I think the death of bin Laden was an uppercut to the jaw," Olson told a packed crowd, opening the Aspen Security Forum. "It just knocked them on their heels."

Olson echoed other administration officials who are predicting al-Qaida's demise if a few more key leaders can be eliminated.

But the four-star admiral warned of the fight to come against what he called al-Qaida 2.0, with new leaders like American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, who Olson said understands America better than Americans understand him.

"It will morph, it will disperse," he said of the movement. "It will become in some ways more westernized, (with) dual passport holders" and "fewer cave dwellers," he said.

Olson said others like al-Awlaki will probably refine their message to appeal to a wider audience, and seek ungoverned spaces to operate from, where they can smuggle in weapons and train their followers. He described how current offshoots like al-Awlaki's al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen are cooperating with militants in Somalia, describing what he called an "invisible bridge" between the two.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the post. BTTT.

[Iron Munro]

[Molon Labbie]

As long as there is one quran, there will be at least one jihadi..

This conflict will be generational and it truly is for all the marbles..

[gandalftb]

Jihadists have always been with us and always will be. What will change is the degrading of their threat to a low enough level to be dealt with by international law enforcement to take the lead backed by military raids.

That process is well underway but requires a neutralization of Yemen's AQ havens.

AQ's funding is now insufficient to pay for the rent, bribes, and protection needed to maintain training camps in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban don't have the international interest for jihad and lack the education, cohesion, and technical means to do so.

The Arab jihadists don't like living in Afghanistan anymore than we do and are not much more welcome by the Afghan drug-lord Taliban, much less the shia Hazaras that quickly rat them out.

Yemenis can easily travel to get money from their Saudi cousins that continue to fund AQ. End or diminish that and AQ dies as a jihadist brand.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks gandalftb.